This invention relates to the discovery and asexual propagation of a new and distinct variety of citrus tree, Citrus sinensis cv. ‘Lange Rosy Red Valencia’. The new variety was discovered as a spontaneous mutation at the distal portion of a single sport limb on an ‘Olinda Valencia’ orange tree by Nancy B. Lange. The ‘Olinda Valencia’ orange tree on which the sport limb was discovered is estimated to be over 60 years old and is located in a cultivated grove of ‘Olinda Valencia’ orange trees in the San Joaquin Valley, Calif.
The new variety ‘Lange Rosy Red Valencia’ was discovered in April, 2009. It was asexually reproduced by budding the new variety onto ‘Carrizo’ rootstock (unpatented). The new citrus variety ‘Lange Rosy Red Valencia’ was first asexually propagated by Nancy B. Lange in the San Joaquin Valley, Calif. in the spring of 2012. The new variety ‘Lange Rosy Red Valencia’ has maintained its characteristics through succeeding asexual reproduction.
The new variety ‘Lange Rosy Red Valencia’ is a sweet orange citrus tree and is most notable for the internal pinkish-red flesh of the fruit and pinkish-red juice. The rind of the fruit of the new variety ‘Lange Rosy Red Valencia’ has a distinct red blush with tinges of orange and light green. The fruit maturation and harvest window for the new variety ‘Lange Rosy Red Valencia’ is May through August in the Central Valley of California. The fruit is found throughout the trees on the fruiting laterals. The trees grow vigorously and the fruits are round and uniform in symmetry.
The new variety ‘Lange Rosy Red Valencia’ has new leaves that are pale, green and variegated. However, as they mature the leaves become greener and the variegation is visible but less distinct. The majority of the leaves are falcate, and rarely obovate-oblanceolate, or elliptic. The leaf tips are typically rounded, and rarely mucronate or truncate. Proximal to the fruit and flowers the leaves are smaller than the leaves on vegetative branches.
In contrast to the ‘Olinda Valencia’ variety, which has fruit with an orange-colored rind and orange-colored flesh, and produces orange colored juice, the fruit of the new variety ‘Lange Rosy Red Valencia’ has pinkish-red flesh (FIG. 4), a rind with pink red blush and produces distinctive pinkish-red juice (FIG. 5). The rind coloration changes as the fruit matures. In April the rind is orange with a pink blush. By August the rind coloration increases and is a darker reddish blush with little orange coloration at all. On some fruit, there is some re-greening of the rind beginning roughly in the middle of June and persists. The new variety ‘Lange Rosy Red Valencia’ also presents dimorphism of the leaf pattern, structure and presence of leaf variegation (FIG. 3) that distinguish it from other ‘Valencia’ orange varieties. The new variety ‘Lange Rosy Red Valencia’ and the navel orange variety ‘Cara Cara’ are similar in that both are derived as a spontaneous mutation on a sport limb and the fruit of both varieties has pinkish-red internal flesh. However, the new variety ‘Lange Rosy Red Valencia’ is distinguished from ‘Cara Cara’ in that the fruit of ‘Cara Cara’ has an orange rind like other navel varieties in the marketplace. The fruit of ‘Lange Rosy Red Valencia’ has a rind with a distinctive reddish tint (FIG. 1) and a reddish pink juice (FIG. 5) that makes it easily distinguished from other ‘Valencia’ varieties and ‘Cara Cara’ varieties. In addition the ‘Cara Cara’ is a winter orange, with the fruit harvested from December to April, while the new variety ‘Lange Rosy Red Valencia’ is a summer variety harvested from May through August.
The new variety ‘Lange Rosy Red Valencia’ has been shown to maintain its distinguishing characteristics through successive asexual propagations by, for example, budding.